WEB GRAFFITI ZINE Zine 20v4: First Nations Collated by William Hillman Assistant Professor ~ Faculty of Education ~ Brandon University

CONTENTS Words Of Inspiration Art Gallery: Salon I Westfall/Castel Memoir 7 My Grandmother’s Livelihood Art Gallery: Salon II Westfall/Castel Memoir 8 Little Spirit Island Reference Links

---

WORDS OF INSPIRATION

---

1. No one can ruin your day without YOUR permission.
2. Most people will be about as happy, as they decide to be.
3. Others can stop you temporarily, but only you can do it permanently.
4. Whatever you are willing to put up with, is exactly what you will have.
5. Success stops when you do.
6. When your ship comes in.... make sure you are willing to unload it.
7. You will never "have it all together."
8. Life is a journey...not a destination. Enjoy the trip!
9. The biggest lie on the planet: "When I get what I want I will be happy."
10. The best way to escape your problem is to solve it.
11. I've learned that ultimately , 'takers' lose and 'givers' win.
12. Life's precious moments don't have value, unless they are shared.
13. If you don't start, it's certain you won't arrive.
14. We often fear the thing we want the most.
15. Everyone hears what you say. Friends listen to what you have to say. Best friends listen to what you don't say!
16. Yesterday was the deadline for all complaints.
17. Look for opportunities...not guarantees.
18. Life is what's coming....not what was.
19. Success is getting up one more time.
20. Now is the most interesting time of all.
21. When things go wrong.....don't go with them.
22. Sometimes the majority only means that all the fools are on the same side.
23. God can mend all broken hearts. You just have to give Him all the pieces.
24. A person who asks a question might be a fool for five minutes, but a person who doesn't ask, is a fool forever.
25. A best friend is like a four leaf clover... hard to find, and lucky to have.
26. A friend is someone who reaches for your hand but touches your heart.
27. A coincidence is when God performs a miracle, and decides to remain anonymous.
28. I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to.
29. Our eyes are placed in front because it is more important to look ahead than to look back.
30. Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace... and your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace.

ART GALLERY: Salon I

Castel’s English-Cree Dictionary and Memoirs of the Elders
Memoir 7
My Grandmother’s Livelihood
Henrietta Linklater, 1928-
Pukatawagan, June 20, 1998
Interviewer: Emily Linklater

    I am going to tell a little of what I can remember about my
    grandmother. We used to see her, but we were allowed to visit her only once
    in a while, and only on Sundays. During working days, from Monday until
    Saturday, we were not allowed to bother the elders long ago, and so Sunday
    was the only time we visited her. I was always very happy to visit her. She
    was sure to give us something to eat, and she used to save all kinds of
    things for us, to give to us at the right time. Even when she made a jacket
    for herself, she would always make another out of the remnants and give it to
    us. There would always be something for us to eat, because she knew when we
    would be coming. And she prayed a lot. She rested on Sunday, and then she
    would remind us to pray a lot, even in the morning and also at night, which
    I still do myself. “And you will have a very good life,” she told us. “You
    will live well. Don’t play with your lives. If you do so, you will regret it
    when you get older, if you don’t do right and don’t live right.” She used to
    tell us that, and I always believed her.

    Today I suffer a lot because I used to have too much fun. Back then,
    the elders of long ago worked a lot, the couples. I never sat around. Nobody
    just sat around wasting time. In the fall they gathered wood to last the
    entire winter. They hauled and stacked the firewood up like a tipi. And
    likewise, the meat would be prepared and stored whenever they killed a moose
    in the fall. My grandmother prepared and dried it, and then afterwards she
    stashed it. She also looked for berries to pick and found blueberries and
    cranberries. She stored them for the winter. And all kinds of vegetables
    were grown in the gardens, such as carrots, onions, cabbages, and rhubarb. In
    the spring they would plant potatoes and store them for the winter. They dug
    a hole outdoors and covered it with grass so that the vegetables would not
    freeze before they were used later on in the following spring. Some were
    stored indoors for use during the winter.

    I never saw an elder sitting around with nothing to do. When my
    grandmother was well, I used to see her working and not just living without
    a purpose. She knew how to do everything, such as beadwork, and she could
    follow patterns and prepare moosehide. She always had tanned moosehide that
    she had prepared herself. She even made soap by boiling bones. She boiled
    them and then made ash out of small poplars (aspens). When the broth began to
    settle, she stirred the ash into it, turning it into soap, and then she cut
    it. This is what she used to wash with before there was store-bought soap
    available. She picked berries in the summer, gathering them when they first
    appeared in the spring. She gathered gooseberries and wild raspberries,
    because they ripened sooner, as well as saskatoon berries. She looked after
    herself and did not allow herself to suffer or starve. You know, there was
    always lots of food to eat, such as moose, rabbits, grouse, even beavers,
    sturgeon and fish. Nobody was short of anything. They worked really hard, had
    their own really good job and worked at it diligently. We would be very happy
    whenever we were allowed to see my grandmother because we were sure to be
    given something.

    That’s it!

.ART GALLERY: Salon II



 

Castel’s English-Cree Dictionary and Memoirs of the Elders
Memoir 8
Little Spirit Island
Athanase Castel, 1930-
Pukatawagan, November 11, 1998
Interviewer: Robert Castel

    When I first started spending time in the area of Little Spirit Island
    I knew nothing about it. Then, my late brother Zenon and I had occasion to
    pass by the island. I knew nothing about it and did not realize that I should
    not point at it. As we came around the bend, all I noticed was the water, and
    I pointed at something with my finger in the direction of the island.
    Immediately, my brother told me, “You should not point.” “How come?” I asked.
    We were already halfway there, at the crossing. We were not travelling fast
    because we had a heavy load. He just replied, “Boy! You should not have
    pointed.”

    Well, it was not very long before the wind really started to blow. Holy
    smokes! The waves were very rough, and it was still a long way to shore.
    “There, that’s what I told you,” he said. “You pointed for no good reason.”
    Then he got scared and we almost went under like this. We were nearly
    swamped.

    “Go with the wind at our backs, just sideways, like this,” I told him.
    “That’s the way. Don’t go against the wind. Drive along the side.” At least
    the wind was blowing in the right direction. He followed my advice because he
    was really scared. I guided him, and we eventually made it to shore.
    “Boy! That’s what I told you,” he said. “You pointed for no good
    reason.” I said, “I did not know any better. You should have told me before
    we came here. I did not know anything about it, and you knew
    it would be like this. I would not have pointed if I had
    known.” “Just don’t point again,” he said when we came back.
    “I am not ever going to point again,” I said to him. Was he
    ever happy when we made it to shore! We were happy that we had
    not perished in the water.

    Another time, when we travelled over there, I had no wish to point. I
    had had one close call and was frightened. “I will not point again,” I
    thought. That thing is real. It is dangerous. I am always scared whenever I
    travel over there. Only an experienced person should do it. When the wind
    blows, it is very tricky, you know. You need to be experienced to survive. I
    fear for the people who fish over there, afraid that they will drown, even
    though they are experienced. But I was inexperienced when I had my close
    call.

    You know, one time, too, my wife and I got stranded over there. We had
    not brought blankets and could not get back home. We were stuck there all
    night in August, just when it was starting to get cold. I was very concerned
    that she would get chilled, and so we kept a fire going on the leeward shore
    all night. It was a long night, and the wind was still blowing at daybreak.
    “Boy, I don’t know what to do,” I said to her. “And you would not be able to
    help drag the boat to the other side. We drove the boat around to the lee
    shore, but the wind did not subside all day. It was getting dark again when
    I finally told her, “I will challenge it, and maybe we won’t sink.”
    I started the motor. Holy smokes, the waves were huge! I drove like
    this. It was not far around the bend, but the waves were wicked. We had to
    try to make it home anyway, because we did not even have a blanket to stay
    overnight. We would have had to sit up all night again. Finally, we made it
    back. We managed because we had an aluminum boat. Even so, water kept coming
    in. As long as we did not get blown over, though, we would be okay.

    It was a harrowing experience, and I was concerned the whole time that
    my wife would get chilled. She was often sick, and we were just the two of us
    there. Our friends across the water did not have a boat to come and look for
    us. We had come to get something that we had forgotten, and we had the only
    boat. Yes, that place is really difficult. I had two close calls there
    myself.

    The other time was when I was fishing over on the other side near
    Moosehorn. I had just lifted my net when my partner said, “Let’s go.” The
    wind picked up suddenly, and we nearly went under because we had all the nets
    in the boat. We were moving camp, you know. We could not travel fast and got
    caught in the wind. We nearly sank. So, that’s yet another time I had a close
    call over there. In fact, I am afraid to stay over there, because I have had
    at least two close calls.

    That’s all.